Thursday, May 1, 2014

Here Are Some Fun Activities to Help Students Prepare for Final Examinations:)

Well, the year is close to ending.Some of you will see your last day of school
before the end of the month, and others, like us, will still be working in
June.Here at ELL Teacher Pros, we are
facing a difficult time.There are
some-related issues and in addition, the change from CTEL to CSET is pushing us
to redo our popular CTEL Test Prep Review classes which takes a lot of time and
energy.The tests are different enough
that we may have to do more than just cut and paste material.The change from CA State ELD standards to the
Common Core ELD standards is also an influence on our work load.

We
have decided to focus on reviews for finals this month, as we did last May, and
we’re going to cheat a bit and rerun most of that newsletter plus a few new
suggestions for games.

In
general, consider letting students lead the review activities? Why not
provide them with some ownership in the review process? Why not bring in
academic games? How about having students create game-like venues of their
own to review? What about asking kids how they would like to have the
reviews conducted–they might surprise you with some very creative ideas? Ever
think about having students create review test questions for classmates to
answer?One of our favorite things to do
with reviews is to use some of their questions on the final.They really are excited about having that
level of control and input.

Remember
that you have control over content covered, how points are scored, what the
“right” answers are, the time limits allotted, etc.

To
“start the ball rolling”, here are some websites with suggestions:

Five Games for Test Review
was written for Adult Education and yet is useful for all grade levels.One review strategy is called “Two Truths and
a Lie”The learners have some amount of
control over the process and yet the focus has to stay on the content.This is a win/win situation.

Ask
each student to make three statements about your test review topic: two
statements that are true and one that's a lie.Moving around the room, give each student a chance to make their
statements and a chance to identify lies. Use both right and wrong answers as inspiration for discussion.This games works really well with teams. Keep
score on the board, and go around the room twice if you need to in order to
cover all the material. Have examples of your own to ensure that everything you
want to review gets mentioned.There
is a game specifically designed for History and one for Geography.

My
favorite is “Snowball Fight” because I like a lot of action, particularly after
lunch.I divide the class into
heterogeneous teams and have each learner write a question related to the topic
presented.(I would recommend reviewing
some ideas for questions, depending on the level of the ELLs.)The learners then crumple their papers in the
shape of a small ball and throw them at each other.When time is called, each learner picks up a
“ball’ and reads the question.The team
then has 30 seconds to answer it.They
earn a point when they get it correct.

Another,
less active game, is Brainstorm Race, which works with teams
of 4-5 learners.Each team has a way to
record their answers.They are then given
30 seconds to write down their ideas concerning a specific topic as they can,
without speaking.The lists are then
compared and the group with the most ideas wins a point.However, irrelevant or incorrect answers are
deducted from the final total so they must write sensible ideas.

FAKE FACEBOOK — I must say that this
is still one of my favorites. Almost everyone is involved in some way
or another with this social medium so it is familiar territory. What about
having students create conversations with famous historical figures? One
student could be the historical figure and a second student could take the role
of a contemporary of that figure OR be a student from 2013 with many unanswered
questions?

BRAINFLIPS–here students may join
study groups or create them. They may create flash cards or use ones
already available. Take the tour and see how the site might make test
review less overwhelming for students.

PURPOSE GAMES–many of the games
already up are related to education. However, students (or teachers) can
create their own games as well. Such a site might inspire even the
strugglers to actively take part in the academic game creation and this should
lead to these students doing better than expected on the examination. Of
course, the site is also free:)

SUPER TEACHER TOOLS — this site does
charge; however, if you like game shows, but don’t want to spend hours creating
them, this may be the site for you. There also other features like a
classroom seating organizer, and a randomizer app (students never know when
they will be called on in class—suspense with accountability).

MOTIVATE YOUR STUDENTS — last but not least,
here are some gentle reminders on motivating students. The vast majority
wants to do well in school, but sometimes feel lost. The tips here are
reminders on why each of us became teachers:)

Last,
but not least, here are some other approaches to support students in preparing
for any exam.

1. Let
them use their binders/notebooks for the test. If they have been
meticulously maintaining them throughout the year, this would be a
well-deserved reward.

2. Assign
key sections to small groups and then have them conduct the review
session for the class. Let them be teachers for part of the period.

3. Have
students in either small groups or with a partner create multiple choice
questions for the class. Teachers can use those questions (after being
checked for accuracy) in a class competition with the class broken up
into number of teams of no more than 4. Offer class participation
points to winners:)

4. Assign
groups of 4 the task of summarizing key points of a topic in
posters. Students will then explain to the class how their poster captures
all the necessary sections of the lesson. The rest of the class will
rate the posters and the presentations for accuracy.

5. Provide
students with a pre-test. Let them work with a partner in completing
it. This would be especially helpful for English language learners
since they would have several opportunities to process both the academic
language and the content before the actual test. Students could then
as a class review the answers and discuss any issues that surfaced in
taking the mock test.

The
bottom line here is to build student confidence in going into the final exam
(or any exam). Keep it light, but academic, and you will see grades
improve on the actual final assessment.

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About Me

I am an educator, adjunct professor, educational consultant, and teacher trainer who has been meeting the many language needs of non-native speakers of English for close to 30 years. I continue to love what I do as much as I did when I first entered the ELD classroom (ELD in California, but ESL everywhere else). What I hope to do here is to share successes, failures, hopes, frustrations, etc. in trying to teach these students. It is my hope that many teachers will join and share as well. What we can do here will benefit us all, but especially the ELL.